Living without a roof

A recent study found that Los Angeles has more people sleeping in the streets than any other U.S. city. According to statistics recently released by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, more than 40,000 people sleep on the city’s streets every night.


Across Los Angeles County—a territory that includes well over 10 million people—there are at least 73,000 homeless




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people on any given night. The report found that of the 73,000 people, 10,000 are minors, 24,505 suffer from mental illness, 8,453 are military veterans and nearly 7,200 are victims of domestic abuse.


This bleak report is in no way isolated to Los Angeles.

In 2005, the San Francisco Homeless Count found that almost 7,000 people call the streets and parks of San Francisco “home” every night. Almost 2,700 people are members of families with homeless children.


A report by Housing First for Families and First Five said, “Children that are homeless are at risk for many short and long term problems, developmental delays, mental health problems (especially depression and anxiety, compounded by exposure to trauma and violence) academic failures, hunger and poor nutrition.”


Instead of addressing the root issue of homelessness, San Francisco authorities have simply made it illegal to be homeless. In turn, the corporate media has excitedly reported how the city is “cracking down” on the homelessness phenomenon, as if it were a product of bad lifestyle choices, not extreme poverty.


Over the last decade hundreds of thousands of citations have been given out for such heinous crimes as sleeping and sitting. In the early morning, police go through Golden Gate Park harassing and evicting dozens of people who find shelter under the trees. On average, the citation carries a $76 fine.


The average rent in San Francisco for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,800. The average service sector worker makes approximately $10 per hour, roughly $1,495 a month. An entire monthly public assistance check amounts to $723 for a family of three.


No longer able to afford rents at market rate, many have turned to subsidized housing for help. There are now over 29,000 people in San Francisco on the wait list for public housing; the average wait is two years.

And California’s large urban centers are just the tip of the iceberg. Cities from New York to Dallas to Miami have significant homeless populations.


In all, between 2.3 and 3.5 million people are homeless in the United States, the richest country in the world. This translates to approximately 1 percent of the U.S. population.


While many social service advocates raise the issue of homelessness, others see the fight for housing and a decent standard of living as part of a greater fight against the ravages of capitalism.


The real root of the social problem of homelessness lies in the capitalist system—an economic and social system that produces for profits alone, not to meet people’s needs.


While millions of families, veterans, and people lack the basic necessity of shelter, the U.S. government spends $5,000 a second on the illegal occupation of Iraq.

If they wanted to, the capitalist managers in control of the multi-trillion dollar budget could solve homelessness in an instant, just by redirecting those resources to human needs.


Socialists consider housing to be a basic human need and right. Everyone has an absolute right to adequate housing.


Exposing the brutal, ugly nature of capitalism is a worthy goal, but combining that critique with an organized struggle to end the supremacy of this deadly system is ultimately required.

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